Ryan v. U.S.

Dist. Ct. erred in summarily denying as untimely defendant-prisoner's motion to vacate his conviction and sentence under 28 USC section 2255 where defendant asserted that he was deprived of right to counsel when his trial counsel allegedly failed to comply with defendant's instruction to file notice of appeal. While there is no hard rule as to how long prisoner may take to discover his or her lawyer's missteps, instant defendant could take at least two months to suspect that his counsel had failed to file notice of appeal so as to start his one-year limitations period and render instant motion timely, where defendant experienced frequent prison transfers at start of his incarceration, and where trial court had failed to notify defendant of time to file any appeal.